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What Bret Bielema said after Illinois’ spring scrimmage on Saturday
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Illinois’ first spring scrimmage under head coach Bret Bielema is in the books.
Over the weekend, the Fighting Illini took the field for a scrimmage, the first of the spring and Bielema’s first in Champaign. The head coach was encouraged by what he saw on the field, but also acknowledged that there is still plenty of room for improvement.
That probably goes without saying after a 2-6 season.
Bielema liked the competitiveness and toughness he saw from players during the scrimmage and said there were some positives and negatives with the quarterback play. The Illini will still have a few practices to clean some of that stuff up before hitting summer and fall camps.
After the scrimmage, Bielema spoke with reporters about what he saw from his team on the field. Here’s what he had to say:
#illini Bret Bielema on scrimmage today: Nobody backed down from anything. Everybody was pretty into it. Officials, families were there.
Focused on first and second downs during scrimmage for 48 plays and then did 36 plays in the red zone for first and second down.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) April 3, 2021
#illini Bret Bielema: James McCourt was 7-for-7 on field goals today. Caleb Griffin also has been good but he was playing WR today
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) April 3, 2021
#illini Bret Bielema: Had an Easter meal after the scrimmage and even had the Easter Bunny stop by.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) April 3, 2021
#illini Bret Bielema: Defense always has the advantage early on, but offense did some good things. Certain guys showed out.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) April 3, 2021
#illini Bret Bielema: Marquez Beason moved to WR on Thursday. Beason asked to do so, and Bielema checked with Walters and Henry, who obliged.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) April 3, 2021
#illini Bret Bielema: Lot of good and bad with QBs today. Gotta be able to protect the ball. They have to give us confidence that they can take care of the ball.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) April 3, 2021
#illini Bret Bielema: Favorite play of scrimmage is Jakari Norwood break loose for a long run and Christian Bobak stopped him inside the 10 for a TD-saving tackle.
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) April 3, 2021
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB